So, I'm writing a book..."Obama Goes to Europe!" Think fievels american tail in reverse and with throngs of germans in the streets. It is really a bit silly...200,000 germans came out to see our presidential candidate. Or let me put it this way...200,000 germans came out to see the junior senator from the state of illinois. Do either of those make sense??? Furthermore, besides the photo-op...why did he go? THESE PEOPLE CAN"T VOTE. Furthermore, while Obama may already envision himself as President...he will never be president of the world (thats what Bill Clinton wants...remember his "run" for secretary general). His speech was pretty much devoid of any real content and sort of sounded like a self-parody. It was so over the top with optimism and unity, I almost threw up in my mouth watching it last night on C-Span. Really, there was nothing controversial about it...that is fundamentally the problem...the only things worth discussing are those in which opinions differ. So, are we to vote for obama because Europeans like him? Are we to suppose that Europeans really do know whats best for us and want that? That they will be able to act entirely devoid of self-interest? When a country elects a president they should do so entirely in their own self-interest (not necessarily on an individual level but on a national level), and yet our candidates campaign outside our borders. Again...WHY? It seems to me that the risk he runs is the media catching up to the fact that this was his FIRST visit to europe as an elected official. So, we have John McCain who has been multiple times to Europe and spends time in the good ol' US of A thinking about our issues and apparently eating german sausage with lindsay graham (seriously, thats where he was yesterday).The final nail in the coffin was watching McNeil Lehrer News Hour on PBS. They wanted a European perspective on Obamania. The commentators in both France and Germany both essentially said that Obama was a symbol that it was ok to believe in the american dream again. Ummm...why did they need Obama for that. Nothing says american dream like being abandoned by your father, raised in foreign countries and becoming a corporate lawyer. I think not. The american dream is in the family that struggles for years to own their own home and eventually succeeds because the country allows it. The american dream is in China town where imigrants form a pocket of another country while at the same time being american in every sense of the word. The american dream is the huddled masses, and the suburban family not the lawyers and CEOS and certainly not the government...those things are all working very hard against the american dream...republicans and democrats both do it. The only difference is that one knows their doing it and the other has convinced itself its not. But who am I to tell the French anything of that. Do the french have a dream...is it the disenfranchisement and exploitation of foreigners pushing them to the point of riots and violence in the capitals streets. I'm glad they have something to believe in here in the US, because they aren't going to find it within their own borders. Patrick OUT!!!